By: Anele Makhaba & Mpho Mphego

Event: PyConZA 2021
URL: https://2021.za.pycon.org/talks/14-building-a-self-watering-plant-using-micropython-on-a-wifi-enabled-arduino-esp8266/

Having attended a make event earlier this year run by OfferZen and Investec, in the event we built a self-watering plant using a WiFi-enabled Arduino ESP8266. The code and implementation were all in C and myself being accustomed to Python. I decided to migrate the Arduino project into MicroPython.

This is a basic introduction to working with microcontrollers in Python.

The automatic plant watering system runs on a WiFi-enabled Arduino ESP8266 running uPython, a capacitive soil moisture sensor reads the moisture content in the soil and uploads the data to ubidots which is a data collection, analysis, and visualization tool. A Slack message is sent to a specific channel when soil moisture reaches a threshold and a water pump notification is sent. The system operates 24/7.

Every 15 minutes it checks sensors in the following order and acts based on this:

- Soil Humidity sensors. If soil humidity is lower than 70% in a plant pot
- the system activates a water pump for 3 seconds and,
- Sends a slack notification
- Upload data to ubidots.

Room: Video Room 1
Scheduled start: 2021-10-08 15:45:00
Sponsors:

Gold:
SPAN Digital: https://spandigital.com/
Takealot: http://takealot.com/
Andela: https://www.andela.com/

Silver:
Python Software Foundation: https://www.python.org/psf/membership
OfferZen: https://www.offerzen.com/

Patron:
Thinkst Canary: https://canary.tools/
Afrolabs: http://www.afrolabs.co.za/

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